The Detroit Tigers earned a shutout win against the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday, 3-0, accomplishing a rare feat in the process.
Tigers pitchers, despite throwing a shutout, didn’t strike out a single batter throughout eight innings pitched, marking the first time since 2014 this has happened. Oddly enough, the Tigers were also the last team to complete a shutout without a strikeout—beating the Athletics behind nine shutout innings from Rick Porcello.
Additionally, this is just the ninth instance of this occurring in the wild card era, which began in 1995.
Keider Montero got the start for the Tigers, looking to bounce back from a loss against the San Francisco Giants last time out. He continued to produce amid his strong season in Thursday’s start, posting 6.1 scoreless innings while allowing just three hits on the day.
Tyler Holton came in to relieve Montero, and threw 1.2 more innings of scoreless ball to close the game. He allowed just one hit on the outing.
The Tigers improved to 61-60 after their win over the Guardians, shrinking their deficit in the AL Central to just 2.5 games after the Chicago White Sox lost to the Cincinnati Reds earlier in the day. They’re 8-3 since the beginning of the month, and will host the White Sox for an all-important three-game series beginning Friday.
Can The Tigers Still Win the Division?
The Tigers have been one of the hottest teams in baseball over the last couple of weeks, though a few deadline moves severely wounded their chances of taking home the division, as they traded two of their best starters.
Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize both found new homes at the deadline, and they’ve also suffered injuries to James Outman and Riley Greene over the past couple days, taking a chunk out of their depth in the outfield.
Still, though, with less than two months remaining in the second half of the season, the Tigers have several intra-division matchups ahead, and could very well make a late push into the postseason if they come out of those games on the right side.
They look towards Jackson Jobe to kick off their series against the White Sox on the right note Friday at 6:40 p.m. ET.